Ex-Marine hospitalized after release from Mexico

MIAMI (AP) — A Marine veteran jailed for months in Mexico after trying to carry an heirloom shotgun across the border had to be hospitalized on his way home to Florida.

Jon Hammar of Palmetto Bay was released Friday from a detention center in Matamoros, Mexico. Relatives say he was hospitalized over the weekend in Louisiana as he was driving to South Florida. Hammar's mother says the 27-year-old had a bad chest cold and a stomach ailment before his release but still is expected home for Christmas.

Hammar was headed to Costa Rica in August when he drove across the Mexican border. U.S. authorities told him he could declare the unloaded shotgun at the border. But reports say Mexican authorities held him until they determined there was no intent to commit a crime.